Monday, September 21, 2009

So a few weeks ago, I was looking back over the 80 Plates blog and saw I had a couple comments--my first comments ever! I was so excited! I opened the first and it was from my friend Emily. I've known Emily for nearly 5 years, although we haven't hung out a whole lot, mainly because I've been down here and she's up north, but thanks to the magic of Facebook, we've reconnected! So her comment read that if I ever wanted Ecuadorian recipes, I should let her know. I dropped her a line that, yes, I would love to have some and would she want to be a guest chef? She said she would, so we made plans and this weekend she came down and we caught up, hung out, cooked, and ate! :-) I was doubly excited about this, because Ecuador is a country I hold very dear to my heart. My family hosted an exchange student from Ecuador from 1995-1996 and he is still very much a part of our family. So to taste a dish that my brother Franc might enjoy was very exciting indeed.

Emily's mom married an Ecuadorian fellow back in the day and put together a cookbook with a bunch of recipes from all over Latin America. Emily brought it with her, and as you can see, we all had a nice giggle over the old school Print Shop cover of "La Cocina Hispana". Emily selected two of her favorite recipes, Pollos Borrachos (Drunken Chicken) and Tia Nicolina (Corn Casserole) and a new one to try Crema de Chocolate (Chocolate Mousse). She has generously agreed that I can share the recipes here, so at the end, I'll post the recipes for you to try if you want to! Emily also generously provided all the groceries and when Leah got crabby from her cold, Emily did most of the cooking. Emily is officially one of my heroes of 2009!

We decided to start with the Crema de Chocolate since it needed time to rest after being made. The recipe calls for just 5 ingredients, so it's super simple to make. I got to work melting chocolate and butter together while Emily separated the eggs. She was really excited to get to use my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, and I was somewhat surprised that it didn't find its way into her bag at the end of the night--it was love at first mix! :-)

After the chocolate was melted and the whites were whipped with some sugar, we tempered the egg yolks with a bit of the warm chocolate so we wouldn't make scrambled eggs. Eventually, Emily had about half the chocolate in with the eggs and the eggs were good and tempered and not scrambling, so we put the chocolate-egg mixture into the pan with the rest of the chocolate and cooked it again for a couple of minutes. Once it looked right, it was time to add the egg whites!

We folded the entire thing together until it become a wonderful mousse. Emily topped it with a bit of orange peel (I didn't know they sold that in jars in the spice aisle!). It was then supposed to chill for several hours, but we only had about an hour and a half till supper time, so we decided to put it into the deep freeze.

Then we moved on to Tia Nicolina, the corn casserole. This was not a terribly difficult dish to make, mainly because Leah started throwing a total hissy fit in the midst of the preparations and Emily took over :-)

I helped with the food processor bit, though! I processed 2/3 of the corn into shrapnel which was fun. I think processing frozen things is good for sharpening the blades too, so that was a bonus. (Or at least, my manual suggests occasionally chopping up ice cubes in there to keep the blades sharp.)

Emily meanwhile beat butter in a dish until it was fluffy, and then added cornmeal, brown sugar, cream cheese, and salt to the corn I had processed and the whole corn that had been left alone. It was really starting to smell just fantastic! She let the mixer do the hard work towards the end, and I don't blame her one bit! That's what that stand mixer is for!

Once that was completed, it was time to assemble the casserole! Emily explained that what would typically be done was that the casserole dish would be lined with corn husks, the filling would go into the husks, and then the husks would be folded over top of the casserole and that would be how you would bake it. She declined to do that this time, so we went ahead and used aluminum foil in place of the corn husks. To assemble the casserole was quite simple. She poured in one half of the corn mixture, and then spread green chilis over top of it. Then she sprinkled a half pound of Monterey Jack cheese (can't be bad!) and covered it with the remaining corn mixture. Voila, it was ready to bake for one hour!

The final piece of the Ecuadorian puzzle was Pollos Borrachos, or Drunken Chicken. Emily describes this as her ultimate comfort food, the thing she goes to when she needs a taste of home. Again, I was more or less forced to take a back seat in the kitchen by my cranky daughter, but Emily was an awesome sport about it and said she really enjoys cooking so she was happy to do it. (Leah is back in training to become human this week! You're in my army now, Kosior!)

In a Dutch oven, Emily heated up some oil and sauteed some onions and parsley that she had chopped up, along with some sesame seeds that she had not. What cracked me up about her cooking style was that she said she needed a tablespoon of seeds and when they got away from her and more like a quarter cup went in the pot, she shrugged and said something to the effect of, "That's how I roll." I have to get on board that train--I would have been attempting to pick out sesame seeds and somehow measure them!

Once that was done, Emily added a pile of chicken thighs. They had to be browned on all sides, so it took a while. Leah decided Emily needed help, so she guarded over the ingredients while Emily cooked.

Once the chicken was cooked up nicely, it was time to add spices. These were cinnamon, bay, cloves, and to make the chicken drunk, Emily added white wine. She said sherry would be more traditional, but she didn't have any on hand and white wine works fine. She also added vinegar and a bottle of olives, because she loves olives--only 16 were called for total, but she tossed in all of them, juice and all!

And then it was time to let everything do its thing and cook!! When it emerged from the oven and from the stove top, none of us could wait to dig in. The chicken made the kitchen smell so warm and inviting. I usually am not too sure if I'm going to like a savory dish made with spices I typically associate with baking, but one sniff and I knew I was going to love this chicken. The corn casserole was also smelling fantastic!

Our happy dinner party...

Michael's ceremonial first bite and my plate...

Oh. My. God.

It was amazing beyond all expectations. The chicken tasted so warm and happy and I can definitely see why you could find comfort in it. It tasted like home at the holidays. The corn had a real zippy flavor and was cheesy and warm and melty and crunchy. I had 3 helpings. I couldn't help it! It was so good!

It was with great sadness we finished but excitement in that we knew the crema was waiting for us! We removed it from the freezer and it was looking just fine. We dished it up and served it with a little bit of light Cool Whip--you know, because we are calorie conscious! :-) The chocolate was smooth and rich and heavenly--you would NEVER know that it had been made with eggs. It was like the best chocolate mousse I've ever tasted, and I usually make mine with heavy cream. It was a lot denser than a typical mousse. The only thing we all agreed upon was that we couldn't really taste the orange peel. Emily suggested that next time she makes it, she's going to add the orange peel in with the chocolate when it's melting to try and infuse the flavor throughout the chocolate and I think that will probably work!

Muchas gracias, Emily, I so enjoyed our visit and your cooking lesson! I'm super excited that Emily has volunteered to come back and teach me to make empanadas for Mexican night :-) Keep an eye out for a future episode starring this talented gal!

In a small, heavy saucepan, melt chocolate and butter together over low heat, stirring constantly. Beat together egg yolks, and gradually stir about half the chocolate mixture into the yolks. Return all to saucepan and combine all chocolate with egg mixture. Cook and stir for 2 more minutes until thick and glossy. Cool to room temperature.

In large pan or Dutch oven, heat oil. Saute onions, parsley, and sesame seeds till onions are soft. Add chicken and cook over medium heat until brown on all sides. Add spices and cook a minute or two. Add alcohol, vinegar, and olives and simmer covered for 45 minutes until chicken is tender.

Friday, September 18, 2009

I'm going through a bit of a phase right now. Looking over all the stuff I have accumulated (yes, I, Michael isn't much of a packrat), I am ready to get rid of about half the stuff we own. I really think I could do it. I feel like the house is bursting at the seams. Collections of things I thought I would like to start and never finished are hanging around, as are things people gave me as part of existing collections that aren't to my taste.

One of the main areas that has been bugging me lately is the cabinet under my sink in the bathroom. I can never find anything. The other day I needed a bandaid and rather than search through the rubble, I just went to the store and bought a box. So last night, I just opened the cabinet up, pulled over the trash can and started emptying.

It was easy at first, an empty glass jar, expired medicines, dried up nail polish, bits of paper. But then, in the very back, I came upon two boxes and I froze. A home pregnancy kit and an ovulation kit. I had started a handwritten diary when we were given the all clear from the doctor to go ahead and try, and I've long since lost that (thankfully), but those pink boxes were staring me in the face. They are the last concrete pieces of a dream that was not meant to be, and I was holding them in my hand, preparing to throw them away.

I was at a social gathering this week with a friend who has been struggling to conceive for a while and to whom I had given some adoption advice. She recently found out that her health insurance will cover several procedures that might allow them to conceive a child, so they are putting adoption on the back burner while they pursue those avenues. My sister was with me, and my friend asked her if she had been planning on Baby #2 so soon and my sister honestly replied, "No, not at all, we didn't want any more." My friend turned to me and said, "Don't you hate people like that?"

Yes.

I can't lie. It's true. It's not that I hate people like that, I hate that it's so easy for some people, and for me it was impossible. I hate listening to women complain about their pregnancies. It still hurts every time someone tells me they're expecting or planning to get pregnant again knowing it will be just that easy to do the deed a time or two and bang! Nine months later, a baby. (And I know full well that for some of my friends it is not that easy at all, so no hate mail please!) I hate all that Michael and I went through the true extent of which I don't think anyone will ever know, and that at the end of the day, I am sitting on the bathroom floor holding the last test strips I didn't use, crying my eyes out.

Our adoption journey has been nothing short of miraculous. I would not trade my daughter for any child on the face of this Earth. I love her with a fierceness that terrifies me. But if I'm totally honest, a part of me will always wonder what a biological child of mine would have looked like. (And not what some computer generated model of a child of mine would have looked like, but thanks for playing!) I wonder what my experience of carrying a child would have been like. Would I have loved it or hated it? What would childbirth have been like? Would I have tried hypnobirthing, hydrobirthing, or straight drugs?

I threw the tests in the trash and dried my eyes. Today I will drive them to the dump. I know I will feel like a weight has been lifted once they're gone, which is funny because I didn't even know they were there. I'm ready to move on. I think.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

So after my love affair with Stuart McLean's Home from the Vinyl Cafe, as you know I went to PBS and got 2 more Vinyl Cafe books. They were both delivered pretty quickly, and I delved into the first immediately. The first book in the series to have arrived was Vinyl Cafe Unplugged, so that's the one I went with. The book continues to follow Dave and Morley's family the most closely.

Dave and Morley's life continues to be a series of misadventures. I laughed out loud and could only picture too clearly certain members of my own family when Dave decides to put in a new outlet in the kitchen for Morley. The two of them have been putting money in a savings account for years and not touching it, and while Dave has his eye on a car, Morley wants to do renovations to the house. Dave is convinced he can put in the outlet himself (Morley wants an outlet near the table so they don't have to jump up and down to make toast every morning) and thereby distract her from the goal of renovating so he can buy his car.

Morley leaves the house and when she returns, she finds a broken window, 15 holes in the wall, the sink is chipped, and a bunch of hot and sweaty guys are eating pizza in the dark. I laughed until I cried.

Such is the tenor of the majority of the stories in the book. But what finally sold me lock, stock, and barrel on McLean's genius was the final chapter of the book. It is a story of how the baseball coach of Dave's youth has died several years earlier and his widow is only just feeling up to writing a letter to Dave, who happened to be one of Art's favorite kids.

Art is not a character I recall encountering in the previous book. The Vinyl Cafe is actually a series on Canadian public radio--McLean being Canada's version of our Garrision Keillor. So it's possible that Art has shown up in the radio series. I definitely don't recall him from the books, however.

Reading the letter from Art's widow to Dave had me in deep mourning for a character I didn't even know. The little things that Art and his wife shared, little things they did for one another, it really moved me. It inspired me to think of my own marriage and how if something happened (God forbid!) I would miss the General bringing me a glass of water after a work out and getting him one in return, how I would miss 5:15 when the back door opens, all the little things in a marriage that make it one big wonderful thing.

And I lay in bed and wept. And then the General realized something was going on. I'd like to say we shared a moment, but in fact, we did not. The moment was totally broken by the fact that he put his hand on me and felt that I had on a really old pair of underwear that is way too big. And he began to snicker. This turned into a full blown belly laugh, which infuriated the living hell out of me. The more he laughed, the harder I cried, furious and never did I feel so alone in my life. (I was feeling particularly melodramatic at this point.)

So to eek my revenge, I did the only thing I possibly could--I put my cold hands and feet on his warm back.

And he got up, went to the office, got the heavy Navy blanket, brought it back and covered me up, tucking me in just right. It was with great delight that I then snuggled in with him and fell fast asleep.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

So back in April, Michael and I were staying at our friend Tom's house waiting for Leah to make her debut, and the three of us were sitting around shooting the breeze one night, talking about cooking and the 80 Plates project when it popped into my head that I should do an Axis of Evil dinner. All three of us were cackling about it, it just seemed so clever. I did some research and found some recipes which I bookmarked, but then Leah was born and it was pushed to the back burner.

Since then, I have tried unsuccessfully 4 times to talk people into trying out the Axis of Evil dinner. It is the kind of thing where you need a crowd, since three countries makes a lot of food. But I've discovered it's one thing to select a European country or a country like Mexico that everyone's familiar with the food and you feel safe. It's quite another when it's a country people aren't entirely sure about. Multiply that by three countries, throw in some people who don't think you're as clever as you think you are, and you've got a conundrum on your hands.

So, the stars aligned at a recent BBQ we went to at our friends Heather and Steve's house. We were discussing getting together again with them and I mentioned doing the Axis of Evil dinner for my birthday and they were game, as was Joe. We set a date for the end of August to roughly coincide with my birthday. I confirmed with them last week and we were on!

However, this plan brought with it a new wrinkle: Heather is a vegetarian and Joe is nearly a vegetarian. So I was going to have to do some creative cooking to accomodate them as well as fix something the General would eat, as well as Heather's husband Steve who is a bit of a fussy eater. Plus Heather and Steve have a three-year-old and I had no idea if she was going to feel adventurous about eating! Hoo boy! I got back on the computer and started doing some research and eventually found recipes that I felt would take care of everything everyone would be willing to eat. I let Heather, Steve, and Joe take care of munchies for before the meal and I made up a menu for the main course and dessert which was:

I'm afraid the picture taking for this edition got screwed up. For one thing, I felt like I was cooking for Three Kings all over again--a lot of food and a lot of company on top of the Honduras dinner. For another thing, I fudged a bit and turned over the prep work on the Ho Dduk to my sister so I could concentrate on fixing up the other things. I also did things out of order a lot so that I could get prep work out of the way before the serious cooking kicked in. I'm going to attempt to put the steps in chronological order, but forgive me if I fail miserably!

Ok, so the first dish I started on was the Kookoo-e Gol-e Kalam, hereafter known as 'cauliflower pie'. This is a really simple dish if you are in the mood for a quick, vegetarian friendly food that tastes pretty darned good! Basically all you do is chop up a small head of cauliflower, boil it till it's a bit soft, and mash it with a fork.

Beat some eggs together with a little salt and pepper, dissolve some saffron in some hot water, dissolve some baking soda in a little cold water, and add those to the egg mixture. Ok, let me tell you about my saffron adventure. I went to Wegman's with my shopping list the other night to buy all the goods for this fun little dinner. I got to the spice aisle, and there was one other woman there shopping too. She took one look at Leah and one look at me and said, "Your baby is cold." Mmmmm-kay, I didn't recall asking your opinion. In fact, Leah was quite toasty, but apparently this lady was mad I didn't have any socks on her feet. So I said as politely as I could, "No she isn't, she's just fine. She's just like her dad, always warm!" and laughed "Hahahaha". The woman looked at me like I was a little crazy and Leah began to wail (of course! the kid has got timing!). So I pulled Leah out of the seat and we start looking at the spices. I find one bottle of saffron and looked at the price tag, $16.50. I audibly inhaled. I said, "Leah, let's see if there isn't a cheaper one somewhere!" so we turned to the 'budget' spices (McCormick) and I found a jar of imported Spanish saffron for $14.99. I said, "Well, Leah, fifteen dollars seems like a relative bargain!" and the woman behind us started laughing. I had forgotten she was still back there. So what does $14.99 worth of saffron get ya? 0.06 ounces! I swear, I'm going to start a damned crocus farm! Forget illicit drugs, saffron is the way to go! While I was cooking with it, I was literally scraping out every last little shred--it was NOT going to waste. My trusty pal Joe was watching over me saying, "You missed a stamen! Oh, there's one! Don't forget that one!" He and I cleaned it out!

So anyway, you pour the egg mixture over the cauliflower and mix it all up nice and mushy like mashed potatoes, only chunkier. Then you dump the whole thing in a pan and fry it up! About 10 minutes on the first side, then you cut it into quarters, flip it, and fry the other side for about another ten minutes. This was by far the easiest dish we made all day!

I also decided to get a good jump start on the Adas Polow, which was a good thing because you must soak the rice for 3-4 hours before you do anything else. I love, love, love basmati rice, and I have a lot of it on hand from this experiment, so I was excited to see that I could use some up for this. However, I was not going to be able to use my rice cooker--there was too much going on with it, and having soaked it first, I was afraid it would be really mushy if I put it in the cooker.

Now, if you read the recipe, you will see that it calls for beef or lamb. Since I knew the General was not going to eat rice regardless of how I jazzed it up, I decided to go ahead and take out the meat. This would allow Heather and Joe to enjoy the dish as well as the rest of us. This is not an overly complicated recipe to follow, but there are a lot of steps to it and when you subtract some ingredients you have to do some creative thinking about how you might have to modify the rest of the recipe.

Anyway, once the rice was soaked, I cooked up the lentils. I have never cooked with lentils before. I'm sure I've eaten them, but I didn't really know the first thing about cooking with them. The recipe said to let them boil 15-20 minutes, but I didn't think they were done enough, so I let them go a little bit longer.

As you can see, it got crowded on the stove again! Why oh why don't I have a professional grade kitchen? Does the Food Network or Frigidaire or Kenmore or Home Depot or Sears want to upgrade my kitchen for free sponsorship rights? :-) I'll advertise the hell out of you if you pay me in appliances, cabinetry, and flooring.

While the rice and lentils were cooking away, it was time to get down to business on the onions. They had to be thinly sliced and then fried. Once fried, you add some spices--in this case tumeric, salt, and pepper. Then you are supposed to add the meat and a cup of water and cook the whole thing until all the water is absorbed. Now here's the thing: I didn't add the meat. So I knew I probably didn't need all that water, but I had no idea how much water I did need! I finally decided to add 1/3 of a cup approximately. It was still a bit more than I needed, but it got absorbed by the rice when I put it all together at the end, so I don't think it hurt anything.

Once that had been accomplished and the rice was cooked and the lentils were cooked, I washed up some raisins and dates, and then it was time to assemble the dish for the final cooking! It was a bit like assembling a lasagna or a trifle--you just do it in layers. In the bottom of the pot goes a bit of oil and water, then half the rice, then all the "stuff" (lentils, onions, raisins, dates) and then the rest of the rice. For the finishing touch, you dissolve some saffron in water and pour it over the top of the rice. Then you cook it over low heat for 20 minutes or so and voila! Adas polow!

Finally, it was time to turn my attention to the Tashreeb Dajaj. As I said, this is a chicken stew and I must be honest and say that mine turned out looking nowhere near as good as the picture on the recipe site, but it tasted damned good! Now, I did have an issue with the ingredient list. The recipe called for three dried limes and I could not find them anywhere. I looked in the produce section, I looked in the dried fruit section, I looked in the ethnic food section, I looked with candy, I looked by the juice, and nothing, nada. So I substituted a little bit of lime zest for dried limes, which was unfortunately, as I don't really like to substitute if I don't have to. But that's life! Also having learned the hard way that no one will eat the chicken if it's on the bone, I boguht boneless, skinless thighs and breasts in lieu of a roasting chicken. I had roasted a chicken earlier in the week and the General decided to "have a snack later" and I knew my sister wouldn't really eat it if it was on the bone, so that eliminated half my chicken-eating audience right there. The recipe said it was OK, though, so I took the authors at their word and made it my way.

Ok, so the first step is pretty simple, just to brown the chicken in a non-stick frying pan. Since my big pan was in use cooking the cauliflower, I got out my handy dandy electric frying pan for the chicken. I must be honest and say that I do have some trouble regulating the heat on it--it either seems to be too hot or too low and I only ever adjust it between 250 and 350. It's very frustrating, things either burn or don't cook! I think I did a pretty good job cooking up the chicken, though. Meanwhile, I set to work on peeling and pureeing tomatoes.

Have you ever attempted to peel a tomato? Well I can tell you right now it is impossible. I suppose what they wanted me to do was to boil some water and dip the tomatoes in quickly and remove them, then the skins would peel right off. I didn't have that kind of time--my guests were arriving any minute and I needed to get the show on the road! So I got the food processor back out and threw the tomatoes in, skins and all, hit "on" and walked away. When I came back, even the skins were pureed.

Once the chicken had browned up, I added some tomato paste and let it cook down and soften some before adding the lime zest, pureed tomato, garlic, chicken bouillon, baby onions, and water. I also threw in the potatoes at this point inadvertantly, but had to fish them back out because it wasn't time yet!

Ok, once that was done, I put the potatoes back in, added chickpeas, and let the whole thing go.

Meanwhile, I had gotten Judy started making the Ho Dduk, a sort of inside out sweet pancake from North Korea which was to be our dessert. Frankly, she kept saying, "I think it's time to take a picture now" and I kept snapping pictures randomly and madly, but I'm not necessarily sure that anything we took pictures of is going to be all that helpful. And let me be honest here, people, this was the most goddamned complex recipe of the bunch. It called for tons of ingredients, including potato flakes and powdered milk, required yeast and consequently needed 45 minutes to rise, required 10 minutes of hand-kneading. I dubbed them "Let them eat pancakes!" in deference to one of the original bad girl dictators of all time (who probably never said it anyway), but it seemed like the perfect name for them.

Not only did Judy get saddled with the hardest recipe, she also had approximately 2 square feet of counterspace to work on. I took exactly 3 pictures, I'll let you figure out what's going on in them.

Honestly, you will do better to read the recipe yourself (linked above) and figure it out, I had absolutely nothing to do with this part of the recipe--I did the cooking of the pancakes, but none of the preparation!

With that, it was time to eat. Heather and I had set the table using the good china and silver, as befits the evil dictators we were pretending to be and everyone assembled to feast! I said, "Everyone say 'Saddam Hussein'!" and snapped a picture of my wonderful dinner guests before we got down to the serious business of eating. Unfortunately said picture is also the closest you will get to seeing the finished products, as I neglected to take pictures of any of the food when I took it out of the pan. I can't possibly relate to you what a frenzy of cooking all this was and how out of control it felt. At one point, I turned to Judy and said, "this is worse than Three Kings. At least with Three Kings, we know what the hell we're doing."

The food itself was WONDERFUL! Everything was very flavorful and the saffron makes a nice taste, I will say. We had a lot of fun talking over current events and just being together. This year we've been reconnecting with Heather and Steve after a little bit of a lull in our friendship (if you want to call 2 years a lull), and I really was feeling quite emotional that we were all gathered around my table again spending time together. It was fantastic.

(If you are not cooking for a crowd, I would recommend at a bare minimum you halve the recipe for the adas polow--it made a TON. I sent Heather and Joe both home with gallon freezer bags of it half full and I still had enough left for 2 meals for myself.)

After we finished up our delicious main meal, we cleared the table a bit and I fried up the Let Them Eat Pancakes. I used a scoop to scoop out the little balls of dough, rolled them in cinnamon and brown sugar, dropped them into hot oil and then flattened them with a spatula. They rose up quite nicely and were actually chewy on the inside while being a bit crisp on the outside--like fried dough but not quite as crisp.

We served them with a bit of ice cream just to be decadent, and everyone loved them. They were excellent!

And then the time of our dictatorship was over. But I think we could rule the world quite effectively--just feed everyone till they fall asleep in a food coma and then we can do what we want!! I might do an Axis of Evil II: Pakistan-Afghanistan edition if anyone would like to come! But it might be a while. There is an Afghani food store in Alexandria and I want to scope that out first before commiting to anything. :-)

And in case you're wondering, this is approximately one-third to one-half of the dishes we generated. I have the world's best brother-in-law to do the dishes for me!